Obey The Crave: Jonny Collins, Alex Nestoratos

Name of founders: Jonny Collins, Alex Nestoratos

Age of the founders: Jonny 30, Alex 29

Location: Frome, Somerset

Date launched: 30 September 2020

Number of employees: 2

Website: https://obeythecrave.co.uk/

Instagram: @obeythecraveuk

LinkedIn: Obey The Crave

Obey The Crave was launched by co-founders Jonny Collins and Alex Nestoratos, who knew there was a market for the business based on the knowledge and community that Collins had gained from working in the fitness industry. Learn more about how the business was started…

What does your business do?

Obey The Crave™ is all about macro-friendly products, launched with an innovative powdered cookie butter made to fit for any diet plan of our customers and support their goals in a delicious and guilt-free way.

Where did the idea for your business come from?

Obey The Crave was born out of an obsession. An obsession with transforming our physiques, while truly living life. We became sick of restrictive diets, sick of sweet treats claiming to be ‘low in sugar’ or ‘fat-free’, only to find out the numbers didn’t add up and we could never fit them in.

We created Obey The Crave™ to serve macro trackers who love food and progress equally.

How did you know there was a market for it?

Jonny Collins has been working for several years in the fitness industry and serves tons of clients across the UK with online coaching and training programs. Thus, we had both the knowledge needed for a product like ours, and the actual community to launch into from the get go.

What were you doing before launching your business?

Alex was and still is working in marketing and consulting for businesses online. Jonny was and still is running his own coaching company called True Brawn Movement and helping individuals transform their physiques.

Have you always dreamed of starting a business?

Yes, both of us – we always had that fire inside of us for creating our own physical product and making a big, world-famous brand.

How did you finance your business?

We put our budget together and reached out to the most fitted in our situation manufacturer in the UK. We also had to collect some extra resources from a couple of close friends who were willing to support our vision.

To be on point, money was never really an issue for us in order to push forward and launch this business. We were ready to do whatever was necessary to find the budget needed: either taking a loan (which we didn’t do in the end), or working extra hours in our main work and finding the cash.

Having an extra job already though was our main reason we could afford it without stressing about it too much.

To be honest though, we launched with the minimum requirements, which in an ideal scenario we should have launched with a bigger budget to increase product variety and stock from the get go.

Explain your business model and how you make money.

Our business model is simple – we launched with one main product, which is really great and unique, at least in the UK. So it’s as simple as that – selling our product through our website and connecting with some gym owners in the UK to source it to their client base as well.

What are the main challenges you have faced? And how did you overcome them?

We had created a closed early launch group before we even had stock, in order to push it straight into our close community and make the first couple of sales from day one. We knew that this was what we needed to motivate us.

I wouldn’t say we actually faced some solid challenges so far. We were able to figure out whatever we had to do through short, quick chat sessions, and we just kept pushing like juggernauts. That was the key, I believe – taking action asap.

The challenge we face now is quick decisions to actually grow our customer base, being able to afford bigger stock orders again and again, and add more flavours and product types to our collection.

What has your experience been of starting a business during a pandemic?

Ecommerce was the least affected in a negative way from the pandemic. Actually, in most cases we would say that it actually helped lots of brands grow faster than what they would have in normal circumstances.

Considering Jonny is located in the UK and Alex in Greece, there was always the remote factor in the way. But that didn’t stop us. We could have made some extra trips to each other though, which we plan to do as soon as this virus is over.

Describe your first breakthrough.

Our first breakthrough… hmm, it was the actual product. We kept brainstorming for a few days until we had that ‘aha’ moment of actually thinking of something really cool and functional. It could be done, there was an audience for this ready and waiting, and it was easy to ship.

The next ‘wow’ moment was the testing period, where the manufacturer would send us the samples to taste and ask for tweaks until we nailed it. That took us just two rounds.

Jonny was able to pull some magic there and, providing the extra changes the development team had to do, we seriously nailed it! Dialed in the taste and macronutrients and that was it, we had our game-changing product (that is the term most reviews actually mention too).

How has Brexit impacted your business? Do you think it will in the future?

Not so far, since everything is sourced within the UK and we sell in the UK as well. However, it might affect us due to import fees, as soon as we decide to expand in Europe and the USA market.

What advice would you give to other aspiring business owners?

One word: action.

What is one resolution you have for your business this year?

We aim to increase our product range as fast as possible.

How do you see your business developing in the next three years?

We have both a serious and extreme goal to become a million-dollar business in 12 months. The next three years will just add to that.

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